Uptown Lady
by TheGirlWhoRemembers
Summary: "Tell the lady she's amazingly awesome!" "Always knew you were gonna be, Riles. Always knew." "I could prove it mathematically." Episode tag to 2.18, Riley and Airplane.


AN: Title comes from the song _Uptown Lady_ by Jakubi – I can't listen to it without thinking of Riley! Thoughts on the ep at the end of this one-shot, complete with spoilers.

* * *

 **PHOENIX FOUNDATION HEADQUARTERS**

 **LA**

* * *

Riley walked through the front door to find that all the agents and techs milling around stopped in their tracks and started clapping and cheering when they saw her. She walked past Jill, who was cheering and clapping particularly loudly with a slightly bashful smile, on her way to the war room, where she was greeted by even louder (if that was even possible) cheering and clapping.

Jack reached out and pulled her into a fierce bear hug, his voice a little hoarse with emotion as he whispered in her ear.

'You…you did amazing, Ri. Amazing, you hear?'

She smiled, hugging him back just as tightly.

'Loud and clear, Jack. Loud and clear.'

Mac smiled at her and handed her a paperclip that had been re-shaped into a cross over a square.

'Distinguished Flying Cross. Awarded for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight.'

There was a slightly crooked little grin on his face as he explained that, and Riley raised an eyebrow with a snort, but carefully tucked the paperclip into her pocket with a smile.

Matty smiled up at her, a wide, genuine smile without a hint of any artifice or snark behind it.

'You did the Phoenix proud today. All of us.'

The _you did me proud_ was implicit, and obvious from her expression.

Bozer grinned and slung an arm around her shoulders, then addressed the other three in the room expectantly.

'Can I get three cheers for Miss Riley Davis? Come on, people!'

Matty, Jack and Mac all exchanged a glance and fondly exasperated little head-shakes, but Jack got them going anyway.

'Hip, hip!

'Hooray!'

'Hip, hip!'

'Hooray!'

'Hip, hip!'

'Hooray!'

Riley shook her head, her cheeks ever-so-slightly flushed and her eyes full of affection, as Bozer grinned even wider and pointed at her.

'Now, whaddya want for dinner?' He spread his free arm wide. 'Whatever our heroine wants, she gets; I'll make it happen!'

* * *

 **MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE**

 **LA**

* * *

As Mac, Jack and Riley sat around the fire-pit and Bozer grilled over by the deck (Riley had requested his incredible burgers with extra cheese, and Bozer was only too happy to oblige), the hacker's phone chimed.

With a soft, bright little smile on her face that made her look at least a couple of years younger, she put down her beer (her favourite, of course – like they could buy anything else tonight), pulled it out of her pocket and read the text, her smile widening a little as she did so, then immediately started typing out a reply.

Jack took a sip of his own beer before speaking, just as Riley sent her text.

'That's, what, the fourth time tonight?'

Mac shook his head over his own drink.

'Nah, fifth.'

Bozer tore himself away from his precious burgers for a moment, spatula still in hand.

'Don't tell me it's that Ryan guy; I keep telling you, you deserve better!' Bozer pointed at her with the spatula. 'You deserve a guy who's gonna treat you like the super-awesome person you are!' He turned to Mac and Jack, something very fierce in his expression. 'Tell the lady she's amazingly awesome!'

Jack held up his hands, a placating smile on his face, which was incongruous with the look in his eyes.

'Always knew you were gonna be, Riles. Always knew.'

Mac smiled a little wider, and pointed at Riley with his beer bottle.

'I could prove it mathematically.'

Riley shook her head with a fond, somewhat exasperated smile, before it changed into a teasing smirk.

'So I deserve a guy who's just as awesome as me…' The smirk widened. 'And I got stuck with you three?'

Mac gave a snort of laughter and shook his head, while Bozer affected a look of mock-affront. Jack put his hand over his heart as if she'd physically wounded him, but reached out and pulled her into a side-hug anyway.

'Don't you ever change, Ri. Don't you ever change.'

Then, the older man blinked three times and looked accusingly at Bozer.

' _Wait a moment_ …Boze, you _knew_ about this Ryan guy? And you didn't tell me?' Jack looked horribly betrayed. 'Come on, man! Come on! That is _so not cool_!'

Riley rolled her eyes and took a sip of her beer. She spoke, not incredibly quietly, but too quietly for Jack and Bozer, who'd started bickering loudly about the bro code and precisely what it entailed, to hear.

'And _that_ is why I didn't tell Jack.'

Mac, who was the only one who'd heard her remark, chuckled into his beer.

He completely understood why Riley wanted to keep her dating life a secret from Jack.

Consequently, he understood why she hadn't told him about Ryan.

(He wasn't the greatest of liars; he could pull off bluffs in the field to keep his cover and save lives reasonably well, he thought, but lying to his friends-who-were-family?)

(Forget it.)

(And he was especially bad at lying to Jack, who always seemed to know when there was something up with Mac.)

Still, he was ever-so-slightly surprised that she'd told Bozer.

Then again, Mac supposed that Bozer would really understand keeping your relationship quiet.

Jack and Bozer seemed to have finally settled their disagreement regarding the exact principles of the bro code, because they turned to Riley with eerily-identical looks on their faces, just as her phone chimed again.

'…Exactly who _is_ the guy who's blowing up your phone?'

'It's not Ryan, is it?'

Jack sounded very much like he had a suspicion. A really strong suspicion. Riley shot Mac a _look_ , who had the good grace to look a bit sheepish.

(Riley knew Jack wouldn't have noticed. He had a blind spot – a pretty damn big blind spot – when it came to her and guys. She was pretty sure it was a dad thing.)

(He'd noticed the thing with Bozer last year, but Bozer had been really, really, really obvious.)

(Jack would have had to be blind, deaf and stupid to not notice, and he was none of those.)

(But she knew Mac had definitely noticed. He was extremely observant, and his obliviousness regarding flirting and the like seemed to only apply when _he_ was involved. Sure, sometimes, Mac had trouble with the _interpretation_ , but she was pretty sure she and Billy had been really unambiguous.)

The blonde screwed up his face a little in thought.

'I'd put it at…85% that that particular text isn't from Ryan.'

Riley gave a sly little smile with a touch of a smirk to it.

'Let's just say…more than one unexpected event occurred on the plane.'

* * *

As Mac and Bozer did the dishes, Riley and Jack stood out on the deck, leaning on the railing, beers in hand, staring out at the LA skyline in comfortable silence.

Eventually, Jack broke it.

'Riles, you know all that stuff with Trevor?'

'Uh huh.'

'Well, it was just 'cause I wanted to make sure he knew that you were really awesome, and that he better treat you right.'

Riley turned to look at him, an eyebrow quirked.

'You went _way_ overboard, Jack. _Way_ overboard.'

He rubbed the back of his neck.

'Yeah, a little.' Riley snorted, and he looked a touch more contrite. 'Okay, more than a little.' He shook his head. 'Anyway, point is, Riles, you're awesome. You are a brilliant, brave, strong, badass young lady. You deserve a guy who's just as awesome.' He paused for a moment. 'But I guess to find him, you might have to kiss a couple of frogs. And 'cause of the whole badass young lady thing…I gotta put my money where my mouth is and trust that you can take care of yourself, 'cause you can.' He paused again, a little longer this time. 'And Mama'll have raised Billy to be a proper gentleman who respects and appreciates a woman.'

Riley nodded, a soft little smile on her face.

'Yeah...I really think she did.'

Jack smiled back, equally softly, then pointed firmly at his surrogate daughter.

'But if he breaks your heart, I'm gonna break his face, capisce?'

Riley shook her head, but held out her arms and hugged him anyway.

'Thanks, Jack.'

* * *

As they finished off the last of their ice-cream (salted caramel, because that's what Riley had felt like), Bozer's phone chimed, followed moments later by Jack's ringing.

Both men picked up their phones, nearly-identical affectionate, practically-besotted smiles on their faces.

After quickly reading his text, Bozer got up, his mostly-finished bowl of ice-cream all but forgotten.

'Leanna's free to Skype, so…'

He gestured inside with a slightly sheepish, slightly apologetic smile, but they all knew that what he really, really wanted was to video-chat with his girlfriend (a rare treat for the two of them, given their jobs). Mac and Riley just nodded in understanding, and Bozer practically ran inside, towards his bedroom and his laptop, as Jack got up and paced towards the edge of the deck.

'…Glad you liked it, Diane. Saw it at that little stand in Denpasar and just thought of you…'

Just then, Riley's phone chimed too, and she immediately opened Billy's text and started replying, with a soft little smile that Mac just had a sneaking suspicion was going to one day become just like Jack and Bozer's.

Something sad flickered across his mind, across his face for a moment.

 _It goes without saying, I'm happy for them all._

 _They're my friends. My family._

 _Who doesn't want to see their family happy and in love?_

 _But I guess I'm feeling a little like the odd one out._

 _I'm not lacking for love, and I'm not alone._

 _Far from it._

 _But I don't have a certain kind of love, and I'm more-than-a-bit lonely in a way that my friends-who-are-family can't help me with._

 _Well…my grandfather always said you can't hurry love. You've just got to wait._

Riley looked up from her phone, and obviously noticed his melancholy, because she reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.

'You're pretty awesome too, Mac. And you deserve a woman who's just as awesome.' She squeezed his shoulder gently. 'You're gonna find her one day.' Something wry crossed her face. 'Probably in an unexpected situation.' A teasing smirk appeared on her face. 'Maybe she'll fall from heaven.' Mac shot her a _look,_ and Riley just held up her hands. 'Hey, you are seriously a magnet for the impossible!'

* * *

 _For the record, I am never, ever, ever using that cheesy pick-up line. Or any others of its vein._

 _A, I couldn't pull it off. I'm not that smooth. Nowhere near that smooth._

 _B, it's exactly the sort of thing Jack would say. Ugh. Enough said._

 _Not happening._

 _Even if my right one literally falls out of the sky._

… _Actually, Riley has a point._

 _Stranger things have happened._

* * *

AN: What'd you all think of that? I'm very fond of Riley, and she definitely deserved the chance to be the big hero, and she definitely deserves plenty of appreciation!

Thoughts on 2.18, Riley + Airplane: I really enjoyed that episode! It was a fun mission, there was great banter and the Mac/Jack/Riley dynamic was really nice to have as an episode 'focus'. It was great to have the Coltons appear again (they're seriously awesome!), and while anyone who's read most of my stuff knows that I ship Bozer/Riley (and I still really want them to be endgame!), I liked Billy/Riley (I think they've got great chemistry – much better than Bozer/Leanna – and Billy is seriously charming and totally right about how Riley deserves to be treated!). Protective!Jack and voice-of-reason!Mac were also really great, and tied in really nicely with how they took the whole Elwood situation earlier in the season, methinks. I found the Jack and Matty scene at the start of the ep to be a little bit weird…this could be my inability to interpret social situations coming out, but where they trying to have them being kinda flirty with each other? Or is it just Matty and Jack's very unique relationship coming through? Or was it all just played for laughs? I was a touch surprised that Mac knew what kind of pants were in fashion (my headcanon is that he read it in a magazine while bored sometime recently), and honestly pretty surprised that he picked up on what was going on with Riley and Billy but Jack didn't (which I sorta tried to explain in this one-shot).


End file.
